Editiones Arnamagnæanæ. Series A - 01.06.2003, Page 296
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INTRODUCTION
from Guðmundar saga in not making it clear that Bishop Brandr de-
layed the translation ceremony for a day against the arrival of
Guðmundr, cf. L 52/14-16 with S 34/15-19, H 55/14-18. If the literal
connection between Guðmundar saga and Jóns saga in this passage is
accepted, it would imply that a text resembling S/H was known to
Lambkárr Þorgilsson, the putative author of the so-called Prestssaga
Guðmundar, who died in 1249.
(ii) Guðmundar saga texts relate an episode in which a Steinn prestr
at Svínafell is miraculously reproved for the contempt he showed to-
wards a relic of Jón helgi which Guðmundr gave to Sigurðr Ormsson;
see Guðms. I, 120-21 (Sturl. I, 253-54; cf. Bps. I, 468-69, II, 36-37;
numerous variants in Sturl. manuscripts do not affect the following
comparison). The same episode is in Jóns saga, S ch. 61, H ch. 96, in
the former the last but three of the acta recorded (but the next, S ch.
62, reverts to events of 1198), in the latter the last but one. (In L it is of
course missing along with most of the acta.) The phrasing in S and H
shows that they represent one original text, cf. the literal agreements
between S 61/1-2 and H 96/1-2, S 61/4-9 and H 96/10-15. The ques-
tion to address is whether S is abridged or H expanded in the middle of
the passage. The former seems more likely. S often differs from H in
omission of proper names (cf. on S 10/1 below) and general economy
of style; and the absence of a personal object after ‘bað’, S 61/1, is un-
natural. The structure and vocabulary of the sentences which S and H
have in common are fully in keeping with the main texts; the follow-
ing terms, for example, can be counted typical; miðla (S 5/32, 10/2
and 12, 46/4, H 97/4), dásamlig- (S 18/17, 63/16, H 63/1, 66/15, L
9/20, 14/13, 37/21, 42/9), merkilig- (S 15/15 and 16, 65/7, H 11/9,
26/2, 98/5, L 9/2, 14/44, 22/9, 24/34, 28/51, 35/2 and 3), sœtr ilmr (H
78/14 and 17, cf. S 63/16-17), dýr(ð)lig- (S 1/38 and 57, 8/47, 19/7, H
3/9, 10/7, 19/26, L4/6 and 16, 15/16, 18/5, 21/1), vera, hafa (framast)
fgng á (S 8/147, 33/21, H 56/21), dýr(ð)ka (S 8/59, 33/21, 62/29, H
20/12, 53/25, L 25/10, 40/52). (It should be remembered that H lacks
text answering to S 8/157-15/19, L 28/5-35/6.) A similar claim can
however be made for the material here which is in H but not in S: the
Latin form Martinus is preferred in H 78/25 (and L 29/2); eyða and